WASHINGTON, D.C.– Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Ralph F.
Boyd, Jr. and Marcos Daniel Jiménez, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of Florida, announced today that a defendant pleaded guilty
yesterday in federal District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida to conspiring
with others to hold women and girls from Mexico in involuntary servitude.

In April of 1998, the defendant, Hugo Cadena-Sosa, and fourteen others were
charged by superseding indictment with conspiring to lure women and girls from
Mexico to Florida with promises of good jobs and better lives, and forcing
them into prostitution and holding them as sexual slaves in brothel houses in
Florida and the Carolinas, during the period from August 1996 until February
1998.

Cadena-Sosa, a fugitive since 1997, was arrested for illegal re-entry on May
14, 2002, taken into custody on his outstanding FBI warrant, and arraigned on
the pending federal civil rights charges. Cadena-Sosa is a member of the
Cadena family from Veracruz, Mexico, who is alleged to have smuggled young
Mexican females into the United States to work in the Cadena's brothel houses
in Fort Pierce, Okeechobee, Avon Park, Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Fort Myers,
Florida.

As part of his plea agreement, the defendant admitted that the victims were
forced to work at the Cadena's brothel houses as prostitutes until they paid
the Cadena family a $2,000 smuggling fee. In some cases, the victims were
locked in a room with no windows and given no money. The victims were forced
into prostitution in order to pay their smuggling fee and were threatened with
beatings and reprisal attacks against their families in Mexico. Several
victims, many of whom were underage, attempted to escape were hunted down and
returned to the brothels, where they were punished by beatings and
confinement. Several of the victims were underage.

United States Attorney Marcos Daniel Jimenez said, "We will not tolerate any
abuse of freedom in this community."

"Those who seek to profit from modern-day slavery will be punished," said
Ralph F. Boyd Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "The Justice
Department is committed to protecting the victims of human trafficking."

The defendant is currently being held in federal custody and faces a maximum
sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Seven others have pleaded guilty to civil rights conspiracy charges in this
case, admitting that they assisted Cadena-Sosa and other family members in the
operation of the brothels, and are serving sentences ranging from two and a
half to10 years. There remain six members of the Cadena family charged in the
superseding indictment who are at large. The fugitives are defendants Juan
Luis Cadena, Carmen Cadena, Rafael Alberto Cadena, and Abel Cadena, Antonia
Sosa and Patricio Sosa.

The Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney for the Southern
District of Florida commend the investigative work of the United States Border
Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who continue to investigate
the case and are seeking to ensure that the fugitives are brought to justice.

This case was prosecuted jointly by the Criminal Section of the Department of
Justice's Civil Rights Division, and the United States Attorney's Office for
the Southern District of Florida, Fort Pierce Division.

Individuals can report cases of human trafficking or slavery to the toll-free
Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task force complaint line, at
1-888-428-7581. Information about the Department of Justice's anti-trafficking
effort can be found at http:/www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tpwetf.htm.